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HEALTH TIPS FOR THE MONTH
Here are two sets of Health Tips on Spring Cleansing with
slightly different slants. i am doing my 36th Annual Spring Cleanse
right now and feeling good. What about you? What's your plan?
10 Tips for Spring Cleaning
- Become Current in your Life in this inspiring season. Embrace yourself honestly as you look at all of your habits and areas of your own life. Even with all the worldly concerns, care for yourself and your loved ones. Assess the various aspects of your life to see where stresses or weaknesses exist, such as in your diet, exercise program, work or relationships as examples. Focus on the ones that need improvement.
- Look at your personal relationships and see how they affect you and how you affect them. Include your significant other, friends, or relatives to go along with you in a Spring Cleansing diet for their own good and for your support. For my cleanse groups, I find that personal support is extremely valuable for many people to achieve the success they want.
- Choose three habits that inhabit and likely undermine your health and life. How and when did they begin, and are you done with any? Which ones are most important for you to change or incorporate to create a healthier you? Do you need help or can you do this on your own? Mine are to eat more lightly at night so that I can digest more fully to be less full, to take more time for stretching and yoga, and to create with some other experts a nutritional plan to reverse some calcium plaque I have in my coronary arteries. It's easier to give stuff up if you start something new, like breathing more often, walking, dancing, romancing, and overall, making more time for health.
- Clean and organize your home. This is the season of Nature new year in clearing out the old and bringing in the new. I love this feeling of looking at my desk, my closet, and every nook and cranny around my house and office, and wanting to freshen it all. And it is a good way to stay out of the kitchen (which also gets cleaner along with my frig) and look at other areas of my life. Of course, after all my years of accumulating and with all the communication and journals I receive, it is harder to handle everything in my existence as it was in my earlier years of cleansing. Yet, I do what I can and sometimes have my support team keep moving things forward and recycling what we can. Then, my life feels and looks cleaner and lighter at the end of my Spring Cleaning, and has space for the new to land.
- Get outdoors and exercise. Move your Body! Stay Fit and Stay Healthy. Friluftsliv is a Norwegian term for healing and de-stressing by going outdoors and exercising in the free and fresh air. Hike and explore your neighborhood and extended community or find a place you have heard about and wanted to visit. I love the lightness and easiness I feel when I am cleansing, and my body feels more flexible and able to do my aerobic exercise. A yoga class is a good experience to expand our flexibility. Breathe and relax as well. Play flute, dance, and make time for romance. Remember, it is Spring!
- Look at your dietary choices. What do you choose to put in that mouth of yours? And what do you fuel your other mouths, with those areas of energy intake, like your eyes, ears, skin, and heart? Write down a few days of your typical diet, then assess it and write a new plan based on your knowledge of what is right for your body. You may also wish to take a break from the TV, news, violent movies, and stressful people while you are purifying your life. It is good to have a reference by taking a break, even with substances like caffeine and sugar (See The New Detox Diet book), to see how you feel and what level your dependence is on your favorite substances. I can assure you that it feels good to release yourself from those habits.
- Next look at your Emotional and Spiritual aspects. How do you feel usually? Are you low or depressed? Or more positive and energetic? Ideally, we can feel a wide range of emotions based on our daily life experience and not dwell on one particular emotion, which is the real problem. Embrace the whys of moods and energy levels with greater honesty of your true feelings. That is the beginning of healing feelings. And I can tell you that many factors ranging from your diet and digestive health to your early childhood learned behavior patterns influence your mood, energy level, and emotions, and thus your Spiritual Well-Being.
- Do some Cleansing or Detox Program for 1-3 weeks this Spring. This could include juice cleansing, the New Detox Diet, or a period off sugar, chocolate, sodas, milk products, wheat, or whatever you believe undermines your health. To do this successfully, it helps to write out a plan and focus on what you will do and will eat, and not what you are leaving out. Make a list of your good foods, shop for them, and have them available whenever you are hungry. And drink lots of good water.
- Now we can look at your Nutritional Supplements. What are the best ones to use during a detoxification diet? I suggest, with a food-based Detox Program, a simple age- and gender-appropriate multivitamin/mineral along with additional antioxidants that include Vitamins C and E (mixed natural tocopherols), and selenium as the basic supplement plan. Also helpful for most people are herbs that stimulate bowel function, and blue green algae (like Chlorella or spirulina) for energy and Detox support. I also suggest drinking plenty of water and herbal teas. Calcium and magnesium before bed can help with relaxation and sleep or a buffered vitamin C formula with those minerals plus potassium help to alkalinize and cleanse the body.
- Make your Overall Plan and Commitments. Begin by looking at the key areas of life, such as with overall Health and personal habits, Love and relationships, and Career or work. And if LOVE moves into all those areas, that is all the better as you will care for yourself and your life, plus your relationships in a positive way. Human love is temporal for many, yet love in the Spirit is everlasting. We are all blessed to share this garden, this Earth, which needs our Love and Protection. We must take the time to Nurture Nature, in order to Nourish and Flourish.
10 Tips for Spring Cleansing & Spiritual Renewal
- Feel the power of Nature all around you and within you. Know that this awesome force is available to you, and allow it to influence the course of your life and health. Identify the areas of your life that need some work and plan specific improvements that incorporate the changing seasons. Allow yourself to visualize your Perfect Life, and nourish that vision through your cleansing and renewal process.
- Spring is the time for renewing your life - letting go of what you don't need (physical, mental, and emotional habits that undermine your health) and bringing in what you need anew (accepting positive health habits that will satisfy your soul). Take a break from the TV to be more creative, or read by candlelight without the electrical vibrations at night, or just sit quiet to meditate and listen.
- Get more outside exercise and spend more time in Nature. Take hikes, plant a garden, or work in a community garden. Create a balanced fitness program or modify the one you are already following that will support your healthy, body/mind happiness. Working up a sweat helps you dump toxins; this will improve your health and lead to fewer doctor's visits. Also add some reflective practices such as stretching, yoga, or chi gong; these help support renewal by giving your body time to gently de-stress and deepen the changes you are making in your life.
- Consider a special and specific detoxification program. This could include substance avoidance (off sugar and caffeine, for example), The New Detox Diet, or a Juice Cleanse (with the warming of the weather), such as the Master Cleanser (lemonade diet), all discussed in my books and in several Articles on my website. Herbal remedies for detoxification can also be helpful.
- Renew all aspects of your Life. Go through your piles of papers, your clothes, and the corners of rooms in areas that haven't seen light for years. Don't be afraid to let go and let things flow. Give things away, have a garage sale, and recycle or re-circulate what you can. "Being simple, simply being." (Argisle-izm)
- Begin to gently, yet seriously, re-evaluate the key areas of your life - work (career), relationships, and health. Again, look at what undermines your potential in these worlds and allow clear guidance, suggestions, and actions to arise in your being. Try to be more aware of the subtle areas of life and the effects of foods. How does the food you eat make you feel. Increased vitality and improved health will change how you view your life and how much energy you have to create positive change for yourself.
- It is your healthy body that lets your Spirit fly more freely. Nutritional supplements (as the raw materials--vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids) nourish and support your body and mind, and this in turn enhances your higher dimensions. The cleansing process de-stresses your body and lets your energy rise and awaken your psyche. Freshly squeezed juices and herbal teas are vitalizing, high-vibration nourishment. Sprouts from seeds and grains are live, vital food. Aromatherapy and smelling the beautiful sweetness of the spring flowers will soother your soul as well.
- Be Earth-aware and Earth-friendly. Be conscious of where things come from and where they go - and the real cost of products you use - such as plastics and chemical products. Re-use and Re-cycle. Support more earth-conscious businesses and products. How do you vote with your dollar?
- Cleansing habits to incorporate include deep and relaxed breathing, yoga-type stretching, dry skin brushing, and wonderful walks in Nature. When was the last time you de-stressed, downloaded and digested your life experiences to catch up to the present? After my detox groups, people are usually more attuned and more aware of their habits, and have made long-term positive changes. It is crucial for most people in our busy society to take occasional food fasts (instead of fast foods), substance breaks, and even appliance (electromagnetic) and news/TV vacations.
- Do something that uplifts your Spirit, such as caring for a loved one or an elderly neighbor. Trust your heart and feed it joyful experiences. Put your Spirit on the line for what you believe. Doing for another is key to completing the circle of life, called Love. Building community is a positive change for Earth as well as for our Spirit.
